Improvement in automatic fire-alarms



` 2 Sheets-Sheet .1 Y P. H. v BR YDE. y

Autom' 'o Fir arm.

No. 213,536. Patented Mar. 25,1879.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

` P. H. VANDER WEYDE. LF@ Automatic Fire-Alarm.

No. 213,536. Patented Mar. 25, 1819.

En? l N. PETERS. PHOTO-LITHQGHAPHER. WASHINGON D C PETER H. VAN DERWEYDE,

UNITED .STATES PATENT OFFICE OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN AUTOMATIC FIRE-ALARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 213,536, dated March25, 1879; application tiled May 11, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER H. VAN DER WEYCDE, of the city of Brooklyn,county and State of New York, have invented a new and useful AutomaticFire-Alarm, to be used in connection with the district telegraph andhotel-annunciators, which invention is fully set forth in the followingspecification and accompanying drawings.

The nature of my invention consists in an attachment to the signal-boxesof the district telegraph, and to the bell-pull of hotels, so that theyare worked in an automatic way the instant the temperature anywhere inthe house or room is raised to a certain degree. A spring or weight isattached to an arrangement which, when liberated, will cause the contactof the conducting-wires, and is kept in tension by means of a wire inwhich there are joints soldered by an easily-fusible alloy. As soon as,by a heat of, say, 140o or 150O Fahrenheit, the alloy melts, the wire isdisrupted and the weight descends or the spring relaxes, and by itspressure establishes contact between the conducting-wires as well as ifthe signalbox 'section, of the button or bell-pull as used in all largehotels where an electric-call system is established.

M N, Figs. 1 and 4, Sheet I, is a wooden ring, which I simply attach tothe back of the arrangement as now used, and the opening in which givesplace to the details of my invention. This consist-s in two brass orcopper wires, d and g, Fig. 1, Sheet I, respectively connected with thesame conductors as are worked by the thumb-button b, Fig. 5, Sheet I,while C, Fig. 1', Sheet I, is a wedge-shaped piece of copper, which isattached to awire,f, and pushed down by a spiral spring, a, surroundingthis wire, which is kept in place by passing through the hole c in thering M N. At the top of the wire fis a soldered joint, placed near theceiling, where, by the ascending tendency of the hot air, the heat of anincipient re will the sooner reach it. This part of the apparatus isrepresented in Fig. 2, Sheet I, where the wires are joined, in any ofthe ways later described, by m'eans of an easilyfusible alloy made oflead, tin, bismuth, and cadmium, of which I can vary the proportionsaccording to the temperature at which I desire it to melt. I iind themost available proportion to be four parts bismuth, two parts lead, onepart tin, and one part cadmium, which melts at a heat of 1400 to 1500,which temperature is soon enough reached after the least incipient rehas commenced, while an alloy that melts at a lower degree, say 110O and120, may often give rise to false alarms, especially in factories wheresteam heat is used, and where the heat may accumulate in some spotsduring the night when the building is closed, and the steam heat perhapsneglected to be turned on". However, I can make the alloy melt at ahigher or lower temperature, if required, by altering the proportion,addingsodium, amalgam, or the newly-discovered metal gollium, whichmelts at 90O,while the very smallquantities of the metals required wouldnot make any objectionable feat-ure in regard to cost. As shown in SheetI of drawings, it is best in this case to have the hotel-bell arrangedwith a vibrating armature, so as to be kept ringing while the contactlasts; but in case there is no such vibrating armature connected withthe bell, and that it is not desired to make it, a small vibratingarmature may be placed in the button-ring, as represented in Fig. 4,seen in longitudinal section, while Fig. 5 represents a cross-section.

p is an electromagnet, with its coils; and q, the armature, which iskept up by the wiref, described in Fig. 1. Under this armature is abrass spring, s s, attached, which, when allowed to descend, closes thecircuit by touching the metallic piece T r. It', now, the alloy whichkeeps the wire f up melts, and allows the descent to take place, thesmall electromagnet will then be charged and raise the armature, whenthe contact is broken and the vibrating armature will cause acontinuouslyinterrupted current, which will keep the hotelbell ringinguntil the matter is attended to.

The second drawing represents the arrangement, in an ordinary house,warehouse, factory, &c., of wires placed along the ceiling of variousrooms and tloors, Fig. G, of which the ends are mutually connected bythe alloy A A A. It' by an incipient re the heat ascends, it melts thealloy, the electric current is interrupted, and the alarm C D E sounded.

Figs. 7, 8, and 9 represent various Ways to secure the separation of thewires when the alloy melts. In Fig. 7 it separates by its own weight; inFig. 8, by the elasticity ot' the intermediate piece S S; in Fig. 9, bythe contraction of the spiral spring S. In this case the closed currentof a contact-battery is to be used; but in case no closed current isdesired, it is easy to reverse the connections, and cause the current tobe closed by the melting ofthe alloy; but in this case a separate Wiremust be used for every connection.

For working signal-boxes of a district telegraph for this samepurpose-namely, to make them serve for giving automatic fire-alarms- Iuse two methods. One is to make an attachment to the existing boxes in asimilar way that an attachment is made to the button or call-bell inhotels, as described, and the other is to have an additional boxconstructed and attached to the same telegraph-wire.

The attachment to the existing district-telegraph boXes consists in aWheel turned by a weight or spring, and kept at rest by a pawl, which isretained in place by a perpendicular Wire attached to the ceiling, andthere soldered together with the fusible alloy described, so that whenthis alloy melts by the heat of an incipient tire the pawl will releasethe Wheel, and this, turning by the Weight or spring, will transmitautomatically the signal, which in ordinary circumstances is onlytransmitted by working it by hand.

It is evident that the wire referred to may run through different roomsof the whole house or factory, like an ordinary bell-wire, and possessseveral soldered joints, which are best applied at such places as arelikely to be irst reached by hot air when a tire begins. Any of thejoints melting, 11o matter Where, the wire being always on a street, itwill release the pawl and give the alarm. It is, however, just aspractical to attach to a district-telegraph wire, police-telegraph, ortire-department-telegraph wire (which proceeds from a lnain oice) atdiierent premises a separate additional telegraph-box of simpleconstruction, because it is arranged for tirealarm. The box is operatedby a spring, which, when set free, moves an indented wheel, made asusual for such purposes, and gives the relalarm signal repeatedly for aslong a time as the spring is able to drive the wheel.

The joints referred to above are represented in V, Figs. 2 and 3, SheetI. I either make the soldered joints by putting some alloy between theends of the wire, as seen in x, y, and z, Fig. 3, or I cut ascrew-thread in the inside ofa short piece of brass tubing, of which theinterior is slightly smaller than the wire; and I cut a screw-thread onthe end of the Wire also, and screw them together. The other end of thebrass tube is filled with the easily-fusible alloy, and when this isliquefied by heat the end of the wire to be united is stuck in, andfastened by its solidication in cooling. (See a, Fig. 2, Sheet I.) Themass ot this alloy is so small and its fusing-point so low that the heatof a match is sufficient.

In order to make the connection it is only necessary simply to stick awire in the end ot the tube filled with the fused alloy, and to Waituntil it solidies, when it makes an exceedingly strong joint. To makethis alloy adhere, the metal to be soldered should be moistened with asolution of chloride of zinc, which I simply prepare by dissolvingscrapzine in hydrochloric acid.

In order to make joints in Wires for bellpulls without the customarybending, (seen in g/,) which cannot well pass through holes, I cut aright and left handed screw-thread in a short piece of brass wire, andalso on the ends of the wires to be united, as represented in V and W,Fig. 3, Sheet I, which makes a small neat joint.

I claim- 1. The attachment to the electric bell-call, as presently inuse in hotels and by district telegraphs, of an arrangement which, bythe rise ot' temperature during an incipient re, melts an easily-fusiblealloy, and causes the bell-call to be worked automatically as afirealarm.

2. In combination with an automatic firealarm transmitter, a circuitcloser or breaker consisting of conducting- Wires running throughdifferent apartments of a building, and connected together in sectionswith an easily-fusible alloy, which, when melting by the heat ot anincipient lire, disconnects a section, and so either interrupts orestablishes the electrical connection which starts the tire alarm.

3. A districtalarm-telegraph box which, in place of being worked byhand, so as to give the customary fire-alarm signals, is started by themelting ot' an easily-fusible alloy, and so gives the alarmautomatically.

I. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

Witnesses:

K. NEWELL, J. W. LAssERRE.

